Treatments for the Protection of Stored Southern-Grown Corn from Rice Weevil Attack — Exploratory Tests ~
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Historic, archived document Do not assume content reflects current scientific l<nowledge, policies, or practices. C~1 ^^ i -»T f-W-t-^-m-—, y>/^ .'3 L i B R •:i;RPEin SERIAL KLUu.^. Marketing Research Report No.272 L- nr.T2 7lS58 '.' S. uEFARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Treatments for the Protection of Stored Southern-Grown Corn from Rice Weevil Attack — Exploratory Tests ~ Marketing Research Division Agricultural Marketing Service U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WARNING No tolerances have been established for the use of lindane, methoxychlor, or ryania as insecticidal applications to the entire bulk of stored grain for the prevention of insect infestation. The tests reported herein were exploratory studies to develop information that could be used in considering the establishment of tolerances. Until such tolerances are announced, lindane, methoxychlor, or ryania protective treatments should not be used. A tolerance of 2 p. p.m. for methoxychlor in grain permits the spraying of bin walls and some surface applications, but is not high enough to cover protective treat- ments in the sense considered here. CONTENTS Page Summary 1 Introduction 2 Techniques 2 Tests with lindane 4 Tests with malathion 6 Tests with methoxychlor 8 Tests with synergized pyrethrum 12 Tests with ryania 16 Findings 19 Washington, D. C. September 1958 sale For by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office Washington 25, D. C. - Price 15 cents TREATMENTS FOR THE PROTECTION OF STORED SOUTHERN-GROWN CORN FROM RICE WEEVIL ATTACK—EXPLORATORY TESTS By D. W. La Hue, Herbert Womack, and B. W. Clements, Jr. Stored-Product Insects Laboratory- Georgia Coastal Plain Experiment Station Tifton, Ga.-"- SUMMARY Exploratory studies were made at Tifton, Ga. , between 1951 and 1958, on the use of lindane, malathion, methoxychlor, synergized pyrethrum, and ryania as insecticides to protect stored corn against rice weevil infestation. Results were to be used as a basis for evaluation studies on a commercial scale. Samples of treated ear corn in the husks, husked ear corn, and shelled corn were exposed for varying lengths of storage in 1 -gal- lon jars and 5-cubic-foot drum-type bins. Protection was measured by the increase of infested ears and the increase in weevil-damaged kernels, compared to increases in untreated checks, during the selected storage periods. Lindane protective dusts and sprays applied at dosages of 2 to 5 parts per million (p. p.m.) of lindane were highly effective in protecting husked ear corn and shelled corn for periods up to 18 months. Malathion protective dusts and sprays were effective at dosage rates of 10 p. p.m. and above on shelled corn. Wettable powder sprays were more effective than emulsion sprays. Methoxychlor protective dusts applied at dosages of 100 to 200 p. p. mi. of methoxy- chlor to husked ear corn and shelled corn were effective in preventing damage or infes- tation, but emulsion-type sprays at the same dosages were ineffective. Synergized pyrethrum protective dusts and sprays were not too effective at dosage rates of 0.9 to I. 42 p. p.m., but I inadvertent application at 36 p. p. m. of pyrethrins quickly suppressed the self-contained weevil population and finally wiped it out. Ryania protective dusts, composed of ground ryania stems containing approximately 0.25 percent ryanodine, with and without the synergists N-propyl isome and sulfoxide, gave excellent protection against infestation and damage when applied to either husked ear corn or shelled corn at 50 to 100 pounds per 1,000 bushels. Three materials, methoxychlor, malathion, and synergized pyrethrum, were selected for future large-scale evaluation studies. Ryania and lindane were dropped from further consideration because it appeared improbable that residue tolerances could be established in the foreseeable future in view of unresolved residue and analytical problems. ^ This laboratcffy is a field station of the Stored-Product Insects Section, Biological Sciences Branch, Marketing Research Division, Agricultural Marketing Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture. Aklee Cagle, W. O. Farmer, and Huey Hall, of the laboratory staff, assisted in many phases of these studies. -I - INTRODUCTI ON The rice weevil, Sitophilus oryza (L.), is a serious pest of stored corn in the Southern States, from Virginia to Texas. Not many storage structures in this area are tight enough to permit fumigation, so an urgent need exists for some other nneans of preventing rice weevil infestation. The most promising control method other than fumi- gation appeared to be a protective treatment that could be applied to corn after harvest, the dual objective being to destroy the rice weevil infestation that had already been started in the field as the corn matured and to protect the corn from reinfestation from other sources during storage. Such studies were begun at Tifton, Ga. , in 1951 and con- tinued until 1958. The Tifton location was considered representative of the Southern area as far as rice weevil infestation in stored corn was concerned. Other insects are often found in stored corn in the South, including "bran bugs, " such as the flour beetles, saw-toothed grain beetle, flat grain beetle, and foreign grain beetle, and moths such as the Indian-meal moth and Angoumiois grain moth. It was con- sidered that a satisfactory protective treatment against the rice weevil would control the bran bugs. Infestation by the Indian-meal moth is confined to the surface layer of binned shelled corn, and it was considered that supplementary applications of the formulation used as a protective treatment would be necessary on the top surface. Infestation of unhusked corn, which is the form of most Southern cribbed corn, by the Angoumois grain moth is not frequent. This report presents the results of exploratory tests made with five insecticides- lindane, malathion, methoxychlor, synergized pyrethrumi, and ryania. At the start of the studies, these materials were considered as offering possibilities at application rates that would not create objectionable residues, but as these studies and others else- where were continued, the attitudes on acceptability of certain insecticides were altered somewhat. The experimental data on these insecticides are presented with the others, nevertheless, as a matter of record. This study is part of a national program to improve the marketing of farm products including their protection during storage. TECHNIQUES Jar Test Some of the tests with protective dusts were conducted in wide -mouthed gallon jars with samples of shelled corn weighing approximately 5 pounds. The samples were treated by placing the shelled corn and the appropriate amount of dust in a jar, capping it, and rolling and shaking it to distribute the dust. The uncapped jars were then exposei to weevil infestation in an unheated building. In some instances, as indicated in the text, weevils were confined on the samples by leaving the caps on the jars. Drum-type Bin Test Drum-type bins were made by rolling 2- x 8-foot sheets of masonite into cylinders and fastening the overlapping edges with roundheaded stove bolts. Each cylinder was placed upright on a 2-foot square of masonite and the shelled or ear corn was placed in it (fig. 1). Each drum contained about 5 cubic feet and could hold 4 bushels of shelled corn or 2 bushels of ear corn. These bins were placed at random on the second floor of an unheated and rather open barn on the grounds of the Georgia Coastal Plain Experi- ment Station, where they were exposed to a vigorous infestation of rice weevils in in- fested corn stored in the same building. Although the bins were tight, their open tops provided adequate opportunity for invasion of weevils from nearby sources. -2- BN-6654 Figure 1. --View of drum-type small bins arranged in random pattern in unhealed barn. The protective treatments were applied by two methods, both of which were con- sidered to distribute the insecticide adequately. With one method, the sample of ear or shelled corn was placed in a tight drum, and the proper amount of protective dust added. The drum was sealed and then rolled to distribute the dust. With the second method, either protective dusts or sprays were applied to the samples as they were transferred into the drum -type bins by a belt conveyor. Chemical Analysis of Residues The residue analyses for samples treated with lindane, malathion, methoxychlor, and synergized pyrethrum were made by the Chemical Unit, Stored-Product Insects Section, Savannah, Ga. Measurement of Protection The degree of protection against insect infestation and damage provided by the various materials under test was determined by several methods. In tests with shelled corn, the original lot from which all the samples in a series were prepared was well mixed and the average percentage of weevil-damaged kernels determined. Not all weevil-damaged kernels were necessarily infested at the pre -treatment determination, but any appreciable percentage of damaged kernels was considered evidence of a vig- orous infestation. In the final readings, the weevil-damaged kernels represented the total amount of weevil attack, and the damage could have been caused by several con- secutive generations of weevils. The percentages of weevil-damaged kernels at the beginning and end of storage periods were sometimes supplemented by counts of the number of dead and live weevils present per unit measure at selected sampling periods. -3 In tests with ear corn, the percentage of weevil-damaged kernels was supplemented by counts of infested ears. At the start of storage tests, the number of infested ears was determined by evidences of weevils at the time the ears were husked- -either dam- age or live weevils. At the end of the storage tests, the determination of infested ears was based solely on visible weevil damage. Companion counts of weevil-damaged ker- nels from ear corn were made by shelling a number of random -selected ears, and by sampling the shelled corn to learn the percentage of weevil-damaged kernels.